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This October sees the launch of a five issue limited series called CHAOS WAR starring Hercules, the Hulks, Thor, The Silver Surfer, Galactus and a host of others. Co-written by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente with art by Khoi Pham, the saga promises to pick up on threads from recent cosmic stories as well as the writers' INCREDIBLE HERCULES.

"I don't care how big you think CHAOS WAR is, it's actually bigger," Van Lente claims. "This is a cosmic big-budget disaster movie set in the Marvel Universe with all the major players [including the] Avengers, X-Men, Hulks, FF, the cosmic folks, and of course, Hercules playing major roles. Greg and I are trying to redefine epic storytelling in the super hero genre and every time I look at the scripts I get both intimidated and excited in equal measure."

That epicness centers firmly around Hercules and a newly-formed God Squad fighting for the very survival of the universe.

"The Chaos King, the living embodiment of the void before time and space began, has decided he liked things better before everything was," explains editor Jordan White. "He's on a mission to wipe out all of existence with an army of alien space gods at his back, and the only ones who can stop him are the gods of Earth's pantheons, lead by the all-new God Squad! Hercules leads Thor, Sersi, Venus, Galactus, and The Silver Surfer in protecting all of reality against The Chaos King!"

"He doesn't recruit so much as 'enslave' and 'absorb'" Van Lente adds regarding the Chaos King's evil army of space gods. "It helps that much of his army had been broken by the Skrull gods long before he ever [showed] up."

Of course you may be wondering at The Chaos King's true identity, which Pak reveals as Mikaboshi, the god killed Zeus in the ARES limited series and popped up in INCREIDBLE HERCULES during Secret Invasion.

"Virtually every mythology describes a state of chaos and darkness that existed before creation itself," Pak says. "The Chaos King is the personification of that chaos and darkness. In essence, he's the antithesis of creation."

A villain with such power and motivation as well as an army of subjugated gods won't be easily taken down, so it's up to the recently resurrected Hercules to lead the God Squad, a task he's not necessarily too thrilled about.

"The story is the giant culmination to the epic heroes' journey [Hercules] and Amadeus Cho have been taking since day one," Pak promises. "They're each going to learn huge things about themselves and each other as they face the greatest challenge of their lives. Also, as will soon be revealed, Herc ends up in a position wherein he is the only one on the planet who can do what he has to do. He's a guy who's spent most of his life in the Marvel Universe being the good-natured, super-powered second banana who steps in at the last minute to save the day without having to think too much about the whole thing. So taking the front-and-center role as the leader of the fight to save all of existence saddles him with more responsibility than he's ever had. And we better hope he's ready for the challenge."

Though CHAOS WAR flows from plot points laid down over two years ago, Pak promises that it will also be new reader-friendly.

"As we were midway through our first story arc-the "Against the World" storyline that immediately followed World War Hulk-we got word that we'd been approved to keep going," the writer recalls. "So we sat down and began to hash out the big picture. We're paying off everything that we've

set up from the beginning with this storyline, but at the same time, it's designed to be entirely accessible to someone picking up with CHAOS WAR #1, so come on down, new readers!"

INCREDIBLE HULKS will also be playing a big part in the War starting with December's #618, showing the Hulks dealing with these deity-filled trials and tribulations.

"The Hulks wind up in the middle of the Chaos War after coming back from their first team adventure against Hulk's Dark Son, Hiro-Kala," White says. "After the emotional ending of that story-running September through December in INCREDIBLE HULKS-the Hulks come home to find the Earth under attack from Chaos King and his hordes, and you know the Hulks aren't going to let something like that go un-smashed."

"The ongoing theme of the INCREDIBLE HULKS book has been family; it's about how the sometimes unbearably close ties of family have the power to redeem you or destroy you," Pak adds. "The big question is whether the Hulks come out of "Dark Son" redeemed or destroyed and how that experience will then feed into the terrors they're about to face during Chaos War."

I would also prefer to see Snowbird rather than Venus as well, especially since she now has "history" with Hercules. But either way, this promises to be a great story! I also wonder if there is any chance of another Blue Marvel appearance?